


RotTMNT Rant

by KassRotTMNT



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: just a rant, nerding out, non fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-19 04:49:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22038757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KassRotTMNT/pseuds/KassRotTMNT
Summary: I love "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". You too? Great. Unless...
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44





	RotTMNT Rant

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I will rant about something that annoys me. It’s not a story, but I read that AO3 allows anything fandom-related and this is.

This is not really a rant about “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. But it is a rant. About the fans of RotTMNT. No, not you, normal fan! Not the usual TMNT fans who in addition to loving the Turts in general also love Rise. Because so do I. I really love the show.

I am talking about the fans who love Rise and are unable to express their love for it without dumping piles of shit on the former iterations.

They are unable to love Rise Raphael and his sweet nature without hating on the oh so “toxic” Raphaels that preceded him. Raphael 2003 and 2012 smacking Mikey is now no longer fun but abusive and counts as domestic violence. Rise Donnie electrocuting and tranquilizing his brothers or putting them in a brain-altering machine against their will is all cartoony fun and games of course. Yeah, that’s not hypocritical AT ALL.

They cannot love Rise April and her fun spunky personality without deeming all other Aprils as unskilled damsels in distress. If you really think that about 2003 and 2012 April, you are either purposefully delusional or haven’t actually watched those series, but go ahead.

All of a sudden all Splinters are abusive neglecting fathers, except of course for Rise Splinter. Admittedly Mirage Splinter DID raise his kids as tools of his revenge and along the way started to care. Following incarnations usually did train them just in case and tried to keep them safe. But I guess they are totally abusive for doing so. (Apparently NOT properly training your kids and letting them run around in a hostile world because you don’t even know that the world is dangerous for them due to spending most of your time in front of your TV is better than preparing them.)

Another thing is that those fans started making shit up about the original comics to defend the changes Rise made against criticism. Which is stupid. Someone actually said in the Mirage Comics Raphael originally was the leader and was replaced with Leonardo which caused the conflict between Leo and Raph. I’m sorry. This is not true. It’s not even a misinterpretation. It’s just made up! Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited to see where they are going with the whole leadership thing. But it is new that Leo is NOT the leader (at least for now, Rise seems to get in a certain direction here).

Oh, and of course: All of the sudden April was black in the original comics ALL along. Ehm yes, no, she wasn’t. You can find single non-canon comics all you want, you can point out that her skin is a little dark in some panels, that doesn’t change a thing. Among other points, the fact that approved colorizations of Issue 2 (her first appearance) definitely depict her as white, should be enough but for those who are actually interested, I will link an essay/article who said everything that is to know about that – I would just repeat all that here. And NO, I do not point that out because I don’t like Rise April being black. Black people, especially black women, need more representation and making a character whose ethnicity never mattered black is a great way to do that. But again, making stuff up about the original comics is stupid.

A) It gives the impression that the decision to make her black “needs” an excuse which is doesn’t.

B) People use it to shit (yet again) on former iterations.

B is pretty simple to explain. If April was originally black, we can – yay – accuse **every** other incarnation of white-washing! Except – of course – Holy RotTMNT! THEY are the first to actually do it right.

Just as they are the first to make it funny and kid friendly (1987? Don’t know what you’re talking about).

Of course no incarnation ever had a demonic Shredder (Season 5 of 2003 was a fever dream of mine, I guess).

Actually Eastman and Laird should THANK the creators of Rise that this stupid mediocre comic they made somewhere in the 80s FINALLY was turned into something GOOD!

Look, I’m not saying you have to read or watch everything TMNT to like (or dislike) Rise. But if you didn’t, please don’t say stuff like “Rise gives the turtles real personalities” because even if you don’t spell it out, of course you then imply that former iterations didn’t have real personalities.

I really had to get that of my chest and better stop before I actually get nasty here.

Just for the record again: I love “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. It’s well done, it’s funny, it’s exciting and it is not afraid to try new things. They give a lot of cool nods to their predecessors. Which is why I believe that the creators of Rise do not want fans to hate on older iterations to praise their work.

I also love Rise April! I love the choice of making her a black woman. But saying all other iterations are the result of white-washing, is not only wrong, it’s unfair and harmful. (Before anyone gets at me: I know that 1987 is guilty of white-washing Baxter Stockman but they turned him into such a pathetic excuse of a Stockman that I’m sure **no** ethnicity would like to be presented by him).

I understand that Rise was getting a lot of unfair criticism that it did not deserve by so called “real” fans. Real fans would not do that but real fans also would not praise one incarnation by being hateful towards the others or by making stuff up about the original comics.

**Author's Note:**

> To those who are going to tell me that this is unnecessary because we are talking only about comics/cartoons and it shouldn’t annoy me so much: Welcome to fandom! We are crazy nerds that care too much about fictional characters and therefor rant about other crazy nerds who spread misinformation or hate about said characters.
> 
> Here is the blog entry I spoke about for those who are interested in the “Curious Case of April O’Neil’s ethnicity”: http://tmntentity.blogspot.com/2018/02/was-april-oneil-originally-black-in.html


End file.
